A Life to Share
by Dante K. Freeman
Summary: Twilight knows how much she cares for her friends and how much she would do for them. Somewhere along the line, she seems to have forgotten just how much she means to them. (to avoid confusion: the characters are in human form, despite the terms they use)
1. preparations

_ A birthday for Fluttershy, and this time, Twilight Sparkle is the hostess_

* * *

A Life to share

Chapter 1

It was a bright day in the town of Ponyville and an even brighter day in the home a young sorceress. The door of a large tree house opens to reveal the young woman standing in the door way holding a large cake in her "hands." The girl had long purple hair with a hot pink highlight on one side; she wore a long purple blouse, white shorts, and purple shoes over her "feet." Her left arm had a small horn coming out of the top of it and on her bare shoulders showed the mark of a star-like symbol. "Perfect," she said, "this is definitely the perfect cake for Fluttershy's birthday." She started to walk out of the house and towards the town hall. "Hey twilight, wait up," said the voice of a young boy coming from the house. "Come on Spike, we have to hurry," Twilight responded as the boy ran to her side. Spike was a short boy with short spiky green hair to match; he wore a green and purple button down shirt, grey cargo pants and dark purple boots. "Me? You're the one that spent three hours deciding which cake 'looked' the best for the party. Do you even know what flavor you chose?" Spike said.

"Of course, it's a blue raspberry-apple crumb cake. I just know that every-pony is going to love it." Responded twilight

"If you say so, well bye," Spike started to walk away.

"Hey, Spike, where are you going?"

"I… just thought that Rarity could use a little help…um…"

"Getting the statue?"

"Right, that thing is pretty heavy. I thought that she could use a little muscle," Spike flexes to show of his 'muscle.'

"Hmm… alright, meet me back at Ponyville hall before Fluttershy catches on."

"Right, no problem," Spike heads off to find Rarity and twilight continues to Ponyville Town hall.

* * *

As Twilight heads into the large Town hall, she stops suddenly and looks around with a shocked looked on her face. "What in Equestria," she said, seeing that the entire hall was still only a group of chairs and desks when it was suppose to be decorated for the up coming party. "What going on, the decorating should have been done a long time ago. Pinkie!" Twilight yelled, "Pinkie, where are…" "Surprise!" a loud shout came from directly in front of Twilight causing her to jump and fling the cake into the air. "Oh no," she held out her left hand and the horn attached began to glow with an indigo aura. The same aura appeared around the cake as it halted in mid-air and floated back to her hands.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief as she looked towards the source of the 'surprise:' a girl who looked about twilight's age and had a similar small build. She had curly hot-pink hair, a matching pink shirt with the picture of three balloons on it and rolled up sleeves showing off the same mark on her shoulders, tan short pants and white slippers over blue and white stripped socks.

"Pinkie, what are you doing?" Twilight asked

"Well duh, I'm practicing my 'Surprise'…" she yelled again, "…for the party today."

"(This again) Pinkie, I thought that you were going to decorate the town hall for the party? Don't you think that is a little more important right now?"

"Of course, but I have plenty of time for that."

"Pinkie, that party starts in five hours."

"Really? Time really flies when you're SURPRISE-ing"

"Since when do you forget a party?"

"What party is that?"

Twilight didn't bother answering on fear that if she tried, she might just go crazy. "Yo, Pinkie Pie," another voice came from farther in the Town hall. A thin girl with a medium build came out of the back door and flew up to the girls. She had rainbow colored hair with brown goggles over them, a white under shirt, jean pants and a jean jacket with tares on the shoulders showing her mark of a cloud with rainbow lightning-bolt. She didn't wear shoes, but instead had a small, but strong, set of wings on both of her ankles. "I have a better job for you," the girl said as she hovered next to Pinkie, "oh hay Dashie, do you have something that you need me to do. If you do, just say the word and I'm there. I guarantee that you are not going to find a pony more ready for this than me, I'll be all-like…" Dash puts her hand over Pinkie's mouth so she could get her own words out. "Alright Pinkie, now this job is really important. I need you to go find Fluttershy and make shore that she doesn't come to the Ponyville Town Hall, for anything until we are ready for the party. Can you do that?"

"I'm on it," Pinkie stands at attention towards Dash, "now I just need to find her."

"That's the easy part, because she's right out there." Dash Points to one of the window, revealing that there was another girl just outside. This one was a slender girl with a large build and very long light-pink hair. She was wearing a pail yellow dress with a frilled top and no sleeves, to show off her three butterfly mark, and a long short-cut bottom skirt. Just like Dash, she had no shoes and a set of wings around her ankles, but they looked much weaker than dashes. She looked like she was looking for something.

"Dear Celestia, what is she doing here," Twilight said. "Well Pinkie, you have your mission," said dash, "I'm on it," Pinkie responded as she headed out the door while the other two just waved her off. Pinkie quickly appeared in front of Fluttershy, spoke a few words and dragged her away.

"Well that should keep her busy for a while."

"But Rainbowdash, how is the Town hall supposed to get decorated now?"

"Don't sweat it egghead, as soon as I'm done with my part, I'll get this place decorated in no time. After all, who could get this place done faster than me?"

"(The pony you just sent out to stale Fluttershy, that's who) Alright then," Twilight puts the cake down on one of the near by tables, "but wait, what about the food, why is that not here yet."

"Hey don't look at me, go check with AJ about that," Rainbow starts to fly back through where she came. "I had better get back to work, good luck," She flies out of the room."

"(I told her to get our present, what work is she talking about)," Twilight pushed the thought to the back of her head as she began towards Sweet Apple Acres.

* * *

A few moments later, Twilight finally arrived to a large farm, Home to apple trees as far as the eye can see. Near the core of the farm, where a large-red barn stood, a single female farm worker could be seen near one of the trees. She was a slender girl with a large build, similar to Fluttershy's, and arms and legs that were extremely toned. She wore a white shirt under her tan vest that showed off her three-apples mark, a tan short-skirt and boots, and of course, her brown cow-girl hat over her long-blond hair. She started to kick the side of the tree causing all the apples to fall into a group of bins underneath with a freakish amount of precision, when she spotted her good friend walk up to her.

"Well howdy Twi', what's up" Applejack said

"Howdy, Applejack I need to ask you something."

"Yeah…" she hit the tree with the back of her fist causing one more apple to fall right into her open hand, "…about what?" she took a bite.

"Well… by any chance do you remember the big party for Fluttershy? You know the one that's today?" Twilight urged the question.

"Can't wait for it"

"Right, by any chance, do you have the food that I asked you to prepare ready yet. We should probably get it to the hall soon."

"Shoot Twi', no worries. I got the food started early today, just take a look." Applejack pointed to an area just outside of the barn house where a small red-haired girl and a well built orange-haired man were setting up a small table of food. "We got your apple pies, apple fritters, the works," Applejack said with a sort of pride in her voice.

"Good, so the rest is inside right," Twilight said while starting to calm down a bit.

"Nope, that's all I got for now," AJ's face hadn't changed

"What! Applejack there are going to be a lot of ponies at this party, we'll need a lot more than just that."

"No worries, I'll get to makein' the rest as soon as I finish with the apple-bucking."

"AJ, couldn't the work wait until after the party?"

"Sorry Twilight, but we're behind now as is. If we don't get this done today, a lot of these apples could go bad before we even get a chance to get them off of the trees. No worries; I'll have plenty of time after words."

Twilight looked up at the sun and noticed that it was already in the center of the sky, there was really not that much time left. "Alright, I'll leave it to you then, just don't forget when the party is alright," Twilight said with noticeable worry, "don't sweat it, I'll remember. Hey Big Mac, Applebloom" Applejack yelled over to her bother and sister near the table of food, "get that food over to the Town Hall for me will you, the rest should be ready by the time you get back." "Yep," Big Mac answered back as he lifted the table of food up with little Applebloom grabbing the end and getting lifted with it as Big Mac started to walk toward the Town Hall. Twilight was still worried that Applejack might not be ready when she said she would be, "(is she trying to bite off more than she can chew; I hope this isn't apple bucking season allover again)," she thought. As she looked back up toward the sun, she noticed that the time was still ticking away, "(I'll just have to trust her.)" Twilight left to check on the rest of her friends.

* * *

Deep within Ponyville a loud crashing sound, like shattering glass could be heard from the center of town. Twilight heard the sound and quickly ran to the center of town. She spotted Spike next to a beautiful violet-haired women standing in front of a large pile of broken glass. The women had a very thin figure with a medium build being covered by a white open backed, long sleeved top with open shoulders (to show he diamonds mark) coated in jewels. Her legs were partly covered by a white-slashed long skirt with black shorts underneath, purple heels on her feet, and like Twilight, she had a small horn on top of her left arm.

Twilight looked closely at the shards of glass and finally admitted the worst. "Rarity, Spike, by any chance is that the glass statue I asked you two to pick up for the party."

"Well…" Spike was scared to answer.

"I'm ashamed to say that it is Twilight, or at least it was, if you could call it such." Rarity spoke up.

"What happened? Did you drop it?" Twilight asked

"Not really," Spike said

"This was no accident Twilight," Rarity admitted, "I put the poor thing out of its misery."

"What!? What do you mean 'put it out of its misery'?"

"See here Twilight, an event such as this is for too important to be sullied with such an atrocity. The poor thing seemed as though its arm was where its leg should have been."

"Spike?" Twilight looked towards her assistant

"Well… I have to agree with Rarity."

"(Of course he does) Well what about the party."

"Fear not Twilight, I shall create a sculpture far superior to whatever you would call what we were carrying."

"Exactly, Rarity can fix this. Don't sweat it Twilight." Spike said as Twilight began looking increasingly worried again.

"Come now Spike, I will require your assistance," Rarity started to walk off and Spike quickly followed after her.

"Can she really finish in time," Twilight looked at the two as they walked out of sight, "small chance oh that, 'sigh' (okay, I guess we don't really need a glass statue. I just hope Rainbow finished decorating the hall, I better go check.)" She headed back towards Ponyville Town Hall.

* * *

As she was heading for the Town Hall again, she had run into, possibly the last person that she wanted to see at the moment, "Huh… oh, Fluttershy, nice to see you." "Twilight, I'm happy that I finally found you, I have something very important that I have to tell you." Fluttershy said with her normal quiet voice. "Oh really, that's really interesting, well bye," Twilight tried to get away from her as fast as she could. Fluttershy quickly flew in front of her to stop her from walking away, "Twilight, where are you going?" she asked

"Well… you know, I have something's I have to do, and some other things I have to do somewhere else," Twilight wasn't in anyway being sneaky.

Fluttershy wondered what was up with her, but before she could ask, someone found her again. "Fluttershy, there you are, I've been looking all over for silly," said Pinkie pie. "Oh look its Pinkie Pie, you two should hang out; you never get to do that with her anymore," Twilight tried to sneak away again.

"But Twilight," Fluttershy said, "I really have to tell you something,"

"Well why don't you just tell me then?" Pinkie answered

"Well… okay, earlier today me and…" Fluttershy was stopped by Pinkie's hand over her mouth.

"Hold that thought. You'll have plenty of time to tell me on our way, we still have a lot of stuff to do birthday girl."

"What! But Pinkie, I really don't think I can handle anymore of those activities and I really have to talk to Twilight."

"There will be time for that later, but first lets have some fun," Pinkie starts to drag Fluttershy to Celestia knows where to do Luna knows what. Fluttershy looked back towards Twilight, who was a good while away by now and got a little worried.

* * *

When Twilight opened the door to Town Hall, she simple could not believe what she saw again. "No freakin' way…," the hall had still not been decorated, apart from a few lone streamers on the wall, "she hasn't done anything. How long can it possible take to pick up a present, especially for Rainbow dash?" she thought back to when Dash had said that she was 'getting back to work,' "What did she mean when she said that?" Twilight quickly headed to the door she remembered Rainbowdash went through. Once she got outside, she was able to find dash messing with some large contraption in the middle of the Hall's court yard. She was a little annoyed to see her working on it instead of doing what she promised and went over to see what was up. "Rainbowdash," she screamed, "Rainbow!" Rainbowdash finally heard her and started to head her way, "Oh, hey Twilight, what's up."

"Rainbowdash, what are you doing? What is this thing?"

"This is none other than my 'Rainbow-course extreme'"

"You're what?"

"It's an obstacle course that I made for the party. When I was inside, I got to thinking, 'that Fluttershy never seems to do anything exciting in her life,' so what better way to celebrate her birthday than giving her a little excitement? That's exactly what this will do."

"But Rainbowdash, what about…"

"I just got the finishing touches on it, why don't you give it a try,"

"What? Not a chance, that doesn't look…"

"Oh don't be a wimp. I'll time you. Ready, go," Rainbowdash pushes Twilight across the starting line, causing the course to start.

At first Twilight just stands there, "look Rainbow, I'm not going to…" before Twilight could finish, she notices a large shadow at her feet. When she looked up, she noticed a large hay stack about to fall right on top of her, and quickly dodged back to avoid it. Before she could get her footing back, more hay stacks began to fall and she was forced to run farther into the course. The hay stopped falling after a while only for her to step between two walls that started flinging fruit at her once she did. She ran out as quickly as she could only to start slipping on a long wet mud slid which slid her in a crescent path to the next part. "Rainbow this is starting to get a little…" as she stepped forward, she noticed that ground under her felt extremely loss and she knew what that meant, "damn." The ground gave out from under her as a trap door opened up, but she jumped out of the way before she fell in, only for more trap doors to open with every jump she made until she finally got to the end of the course and face planted across the line.

"Time, 5:28; not bad Twilight," Dash said to the downed girl, "Nothing to write home about, but not bad. So what did you think?" Twilight looked up at her 'friend' with a hateful stare, "What did I think? I think it was…" "I know, it's still just too easy. Maybe I should add more hay, or maybe more pits." Rainbow pondered.

"Rainbow," Twilight said, "are you trying to kill Fluttershy for her birthday?"

"Oh come on, if you can get through that course, I'm sure that she can do the same."

Twilight ignored the obvious insult, because she was already too annoyed, "Rainbow, what does this course have to do with the party. I thought that you said that you were going to decorate the Hall."

"I am. Now that I'm done with my course, I'll be able to finish that hall in no time at all, no worries."

"By any chance did you remember to get the present we got Fluttershy?"

"Huh… oh the present, I knew I forgot something. I'll just pick up the present before going back to the Hall, no sweat."

"(No sweat, yeah right.)" Twilight started to walk away."

"Well, now I have to go pick up a present, cook the party's food, and re-order an expensive crystal statue before the party starts in…" Twilight looks at the sun again, 1-hour."

"Why would you do all that?"

"Because every-pony is too busy with there own things to help me with them. Now I'm just going to have to do this on my own. It's no big deal, I'm sure I can get it done, I just have to hurry." Rainbow starts to look at Twilight with a little confusion. "At least Fluttershy is still distracted. That will make things easier. Now first I should probably head to…"

"SURPRISE!" Pinkie popped up in front of Twilight again, knocking her back to the ground.

"Pinkie!" Twilight said, annoyed.

"Did I surprise you, cool, my surprise is ready. Wow what happened to you?" Pinkie looks at Twilight, still covered in mud and fruit stains all over her body and clothing.

"It's a long story," Twilight look over towards Rainbow, "Pinkie, aren't you suppose to be stalling Fluttershy?"

"I was, but then I saw all of 'them'," Pinkie points over towards all of the people heading for the town hall, waiting for the party to start. "They reminded me that I still had something important to do. My SURPRISE still needed a lot of work, so I needed to get back to that."

Twilight looked on at all of the party guests and got extremely worried. She wasted no more time and started to her first new task. "I'm out of time," Twilight cried, "I have to do something right… ahhhh!" While she began running she had accidentally fallen into one of Rainbow dashes pit falls. Rainbowdash looked down the pit to see if she was okay, "Twilight," She shouted, "Are you okay down there?" Twilight quickly teleported herself back to the top of the pit, startling Rainbowdash into the air, "Rainbow, how in the wide world of Equestria did you make such a deep hole in such a short time?"

"Hard work and determination." Rainbow joked.

Twilight had no response. She looked around and asked, "Where'd Pinkie Pie go?"

"She went back to the Town Hall; she said that she still had something important to do."

"Probably more surprise practice, 'Sigh' this isn't going the way that I had planed at all."

"Calm down egghead, soon everyone will get here and we can celebrate Fluttershy's birthday right, party or not."

"I guess so, I just hope that nothing else goes wrong," As Twilight said that, the ground beneath the girls started to shake intensely. The quake was felt through the whole town and the source seemed to be within the hole by the girl's feet, "why did I have to say something?"

* * *

_ To Be Continued _


	2. unwanted guest

_ The new guest gets hungry and Ponyville is on the menu._

* * *

Chapter 2

Twilight and Rainbow started to look down the hole, wondering what could be making the quake, "Rainbow, what in Equestria did you put down that hole," Twilight yelled to the winged girl. "Nothing," she responded, "there's just a bunch of dirt down there." "Oh no," Fluttershy said as she started to head towards the girls. She began to look down the hole too. "How did this hole get here?"

"Well…" Rainbow was hesitant to answer.

"It's parts of rainbows obstacle course that she made for your birthday," Twilight was not hesitant to say.

"Twilight, what the hey"

"The party was a bust anyway, we might as well tell her."

Fluttershy wasn't sure what was going on but she was too worried right now to care. "Girls this is really bad. Quickly Twilight, I have to tell you…" Before Fluttershy could finish, a massive amount of energy, in the form of red light, began bursting out of the hole. The girls were forced to shield there eyes from it, it was so intense. Not long after, a strange figure started to fly out of the hole from within the light. The girls looked on at the figure the best that they could; it was a man with short-black-slung back hair and a long black cloak covering him from head to toe. His fore-head and palms showed a strange mark that looked like a swirling eyeball with horns coming out of it.

"What the hay is that thing," Twilight said in fear.

"Twilight, that's the 'thing' that I was trying to tell you about before" Fluttershy clarified.

"What!?" Twilight and Rainbowdash cried

"Last night I was in town, trying to lead a few stray lightning bugs back to forest, when I saw Princess Luna in this courtyard looking at this spot. When I got close, she told me about him. His name is Minucorn, a dark wizard that Princess Celestia Sealed in Ponyville about a century ago. Every decade, she has to redo the seal, but this year she wasn't able to come, and neither was Luna, so she told me to ask you to seal him back."

"Me?" Twilight said confused, "how am I supposed to do this."

"She told me the spell you needed, but it had to be cast when he was still in the ground. The seal is broken, it's too late."

"What was he spell?"

"**Light Shell **is the name that she used."

"That's a beginner's spell!"

The shout cased Minucorn to look there way. He rose up one of his hands while a red orb began to form in it. The girls saw the attack and moved out of the way as he fired. The blast was so massive that it engulfed the entire courtyard in its energy. Once the smoke cleared, the girls were on the other side of the yard, right at the base of the back door of the Town hall. "My course! I worked for hours on that," Rainbowdash said, "Really, All that's happening and you're worried about your course," Twilight responded.

* * *

Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom had been walking to the party, carrying all of the food they had cooked, when they noticed the strange event. The sky had begun to darken into a blood-red shade, as the energy of the sorcerer leaked into the surrounding atmosphere. "Applejack," Rarity yelled as she ran over to Applejack, a large glass statue of Fluttershy flying behind her, and Spike following, "What is going on here." "I have no idea, but I think I can guess where it's comin' from." She looks to the skies and sees the large pillar of light coming from the direction of the Town Hall, "Oh no, come on!" Applejack starts to run in that direction with everyone following after her, preparing for the worst.

* * *

After minutes of running, the group finally gets to the Town Hall to find that the energy is coming from the back, and is starting to move. AJ puts her crate of food down, "Alright, I'm going," she says, only for her to be stopped by her little sister holding onto her arm. "Are you crazy," says Applebloom, "Listen little sis'," Applejack kneels to Applebloom's height, "I have to go. Somethin's just telling me that I need to be there. Big Mac," she says to her older brother, "Take Applebloom and the rest and get in the Hall. I'm counting on you to keep them safe, can you do that." Big Mac is hesitant to let Applejack go, but soon he answers "yup."

As AJ starts to the back, Rarity and Spike tag along, "We're going too. We have that same feeling too you know" Spike says, "Yes, something is not quite right." Applejack agrees and they start to the back, "Big Macintosh, make shore that nothing bad happens to that statue, understand," says Rarity, Big Mac aggress and brings the statue and food into the hall while the girls and spike head to the light.

* * *

On the other side of the Hall, The group sees the dark wizard flying farther into the town. "What in all of Equestria is that?" Applejack said, "Forget about that, look!" Rarity focuses there attention to Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow that have all been knocked out. The group runs over to there fallen friends in hopes that they are alright, and after a bit of nudging… or slapping, the girls finally came back to there senses. "Uhgg… what… what happened?" Twilight said, now awake, "that's what we want you to tell us," Applejack asked, "…why were you three knocked-out?"

"…Because… Minucorn. Where's Minucorn?"

"Who?"

"If you're talking about that glowing guy, he's leaving." Said Spike

"No! We can't let him get away."

"Why? Who is he?"

"Minucorn…" Fluttershy said, finally awake, "He's a dark wizard who survives by… eating the life force of other-ponies. He can't get away." She stands back up, followed by the other two.

"He's not going to get away," Rainbow says, "not if I can help it." She bolts towards Minucorn without taking the time to listen to the rest.

"Rainbow, wait," Applejack shouts to no avail.

"She can't, and we shouldn't either," Twilight starts to run after her; "we have to take this guy down before he hurts anyone." The others have no time to argue and they start following after Twilight with no questions asked.

* * *

Rainbowdash starts to get into range of Minucorn, "Hey 'Soul Sucker'," Minucorn looks toward the noise, "you want to eat something, eat this." She pulls her fist back and tries to punch him, but he just deflects the blow without moving, but that doesn't stop her from trying again. The others finally arrive to the fight to see Rainbowdash continue to attack only for every blow to be so effortlessly deflected. After a bit, Minucorn got tired and grabbed her last punch and threw her over her friends and into a nearby building.

After 'swatting the fly,' Minucorn began to do what he came for. A large amount of energy came from his body and made its way into any of the citizens not lucky enough to be at the party. After the negative energy started to return form the citizens, he began to feed on the energy like a sponge.

"What is he doing?" Rarity asked, "This is how he feeds," Answered Fluttershy, "his magic increases negative feelings in any-pony who gets too close. After they're at there peak, he starts to feed on the suffering spirit, it's horrible."

"Which is why we're doing this" Rainbow dash says, visibly wounded from the toss but still flying, "So are you guys going to just stand there or are you going to fight." She flies back toward him.

"Well, nothing will be accomplished by standing here," Rarity says as she follows after Rainbowdash.

"We had better follow." Twilight says and does the same. The rest follow after her.

Rainbow tries to kick Minucorn while he is focusing on feeding, but her attack is just deflected like the rest. After Rainbow is hit away Rarity tries to break through his magic field with the few gems in the ground under them. "It's not exactly common for me to find gems in town, you will pay for forcing me to use them in this way," she says as she launches the crystal towards the wizard, but they just turn to dust on his shield. Twilight pays close attention to how the shield bends as the projectiles hit it, but no matter how many hit, it never does any more than that. Soon Rarity runs out of gems and the shield still does not break, "impossible," she says in confusion, Minucorn takes the opportunity to grab Rarity with his Magic and launch her away. The friends look in shock as they fly out of there reach, but Rainbow dash luckily was able to catch her before she got seriously hurt, to everyone's relief, Spike quickly ran to her side.

"Ok, so gems couldn't hurt you, let's try this then," Applejack says as she grabbed an Apple from the bag she was still holding, launched it into the air and kicked it at an unimaginable speed, hitting the shield with amazing force. Minucorn wasn't scared of 'Apples' and proceeded farther into the city, "You'll regret turning your back to me." Applejack tossed the whole bag in the air, causing all of the apples to fly out. As they came back down, Applejack kicked each with the same force and precision, causing them to explode on top of the shields surface. Minucorn still paid no mind to the attacks, until he started to feel the force on his back causing him to turn. "I get it," said Twilight, "She's hitting the same spot over and over, so it's breaking down the shield." The apples continued to hit, and with each the shield wares down more and more. "(Come on, open up)" Applejack thought as she watched the shield to see any openings, until finally, it broke. "All right," Applejack wound her leg back, "Try this on for size," she kicked her last apple with twice the force of the rest. The projectile flew through the air with immense speed until it finally reached Minucorn's shield and, effortlessly, flew through, only to be caught in his hand.

Applejack was in shock to see her attack, which could give a dragon a head-ache, caught so easily. The wizard crushed the fruit in his hand, and with the same, began to launch a wave of small red projectiles at Applejack, similar to the apples she through. Twilight quickly opened a shield in front of Applejack, but the force was more than enough to break through. AJ, jumped back to avoid it so she wasn't damaged much, until Minucorn appeared behind her and launched one more energy ball at point blank range. The blast caused her to fly into Rainbow who was flying in front of her. They were knocked out, but luckily still alive.

"Applejack, Rainbowdash!" Twilight looked toward the two, and then toward the rest of her friends. "This can't go on any farther. I'm ending this now." Twilight stepped forward, but was stopped when Fluttershy stepped in front of her, "Wait Twilight," she said.

"What are you doing?"

"Twilight please, let me try something."

"Fluttershy, this isn't taming a wild animal. We're fighting an evil wizard, you could get hurt, or worse."

"Just trust me; I know what I'm doing." Twilight thought back to when she trusted her friends last, how it didn't go her way at all, but still… "Okay," Fluttershy flew towards Minucorn, "(please be careful)"

Fluttershy flew directly in front of Minucorn and looked his way while he looked back. Minucorn raised one of his hands and readied another one of his spells; Twilight saw this and got one of hers ready as well. "Hearts…" Fluttershy said in a caring voice, "HeartsMajor." The name seemed to connect with Minucorn, because he lowered his hand and just flew there. "That's your real name right, born in Canterlot as an earth-pony, but fell in love with magic. That's why you put that mark on your head, but when you did other ponies started to make fun of you, they called you a freak, and they made fun of you. It was all of that mocking that turned you into this, but they were wrong, you're not a freak. Stop this, just let us help you."

The friends where surprised to see the way that Fluttershy's words seemed to be affecting Minucorn. As he looked at the kind girl, his eyes began to feel heavy as tears began forming in them. He held out his hand as Fluttershy did the same, showing that she meant him no harm. As Minucorn tried to reach her, something began to go wrong. His entire body began to tense up and the marks on his hands and head shined a violent-red light as his energy began to serge through him. He screamed and flailed as the energy continued to intensify, eventually looking at Fluttershy again, with hate and anger in his eyes instead of sadness. Twilight screamed at the girl "Fluttershy get out of there!" but before she could move, Minucorn had caught her in his grasp.

Fluttershy struggled and twitched as she tried to escape the red energy that kept her stationary. "Hearts… please, don't let the mark control you…," as she spoke, Minucorn got noticeably angrier as he started to clench the hand pointed toward her. Fluttershy screamed out in pain, the energy rushing around and through her, tearing away at her from the inside out. Twilight looked at the horrific scene before her, "Stop this now!" she screamed and rushed him with her horn blazing bright with its indigo aura, "let her go right now!" Minucorn saw her coming and swung his arm her way, tossing Fluttershy, hitting Twilight and sending her back.

The girls had all woken up in time to see scene, and none of them were happy. Rarity and Spike rushed over to Twilight and Fluttershy, but Applejack and Rainbowdash only looked at Minucorn, a bloodlust in there eyes that they have never felt before. "You… heartless… cruel… BASTERD!" Rainbowdash screamed as she flew back into the sky while an immense electrical field, from inside of her, began to wrap itself around her body, "You will pay!" "Don't think your going in there alone partner," Applejack said as she grabbed a lasso from her back and ran towards Minucorn, followed by Rainbow.

Twilight was still sitting on the ground with Fluttershy on her lap. She was badly bruised and blood had started leaking out of her mouth, but most of her wounds were internal; too many to be mentioned. Twilight checked her pulse and was scared to feel how weak it was. "Twilight," Rarity said as they finally reached them, "Please tell me she's ok. She's not…"

"No, but she's close. Her pulse is slow and she has a lot of internal bleeding."

Rarity grew even more worried (if that was possible), and Spike just looked in shock. "Twilight, can you do anything for her," Spike finally said. Twilight looked up at the battle taking place in front of her. Rainbow flew at intense speed, either crashing into Minucorn or causing small electric twisters around him. Applejack used her legs to attack every chance that she got, not bothering to worry about the magic field. There attacks were doing more than before, but still not that much. "(It won't work)," Twilight looked deeply into the light given off by Minucorn, "(there attacks can't do anything… 'They' can't do anything.)" Her eyes grew darker… colder.

* * *

_To Be Continued_


	3. trust

_The fight with Minucorn comes to an end_

* * *

Chapter 3

Twilight looked back toward her wounded friend with a mix of sadness, concern and anger. She lifted her horn and placed it on top of Fluttershy's heart as it started t glow. "Rarity, come here, I need your help," Twilight called, and Rarity listened, "I need you to help me heal her. Just put your horn over her heart, like me, and focus you magic on keeping it stable." "Okay," Rarity did as Twilight said and started to shine her horn over Flutershy's heart while Twilight started to walk away. Rarity didn't know what Twilight was doing, "don't move from there, if you do, Fluttershy could die," Rarity grew scared again and focused on Fluttershy. Twilight walked towards Spike, "Spike…," she kneeled down and hugged him, "…thank-you… for being such a great assistant."

"Twilight…" Spike said, "What's going on?"

"Do you remember the time after the Sombra incident? The spell I learned?"

"Spell, what… no, Twilight that's crazy, there has to be another way. What about the elements?"

"There in Canterlot," Twilight lets him go, "and even if they were here, does Fluttershy look like she could use them?" Spike looks over towards Fluttershy, still unconscious and being healed. "I have to do this," Twilight starts to walk away.

"Wait Twilight…," Spike reaches for her, but Twilight shines her horn and causes Spike to halt in his tracks, "What the… I can't move, Twilight," she walks away. "Twilight, please don't do this!"

Back in the battle, Minucorn actually starts to look a little shaken. Rainbowdash flies off a ways' until she doubles-back and darts right for him. He tries to attack, but is halted once Applejack binds him up with her lasso, "gotcha', now Rainbow!" Rainbowdash increases her speed and electricity until a large air pocket forms around her, "Eat this!" she says as the pocket breaks and a large sonic-boom sounds as she continued forward with a long rainbow following her. When she hits, a large electrical explosion engulfs them all, but when it clears, it's shown that she had stopped just before Minucorn, while his eyes began to glow an intense red light.

"What," Rainbowdash said

"That aint' possible" said Applejack

Minucorn looked AJ's way, as she started to lift into the air while her lasso was disintegrated. With a flick of his head, he throw the two, again, towards the girls.

"This guy's unreal," Applejack said as she tried to get back up.

"I don't care… I'm not quitting," Rainbow said, flying back into the air.

"Yes you are," Twilight said walking beside them both

"Wait, what did you…" before Applejack could finish, Twilight had used her magic to freeze them like she did Spike.

"Hey Twi, what gives," Rainbow cried

"Just let me handle this," Twilight kept walking

"What are you talking about, how are you going to beat him alone." Applejack yelled

"I have ways," she walked off.

"How the hey is she…" "You have to stop her!" Spike interrupted, "Please, if you don't do something, Twilight will die!"

"Die!? You don't know that for shore"

"Listen, Twilight never told anyone this, but after the event in the Crystal Empire, she was upset that she couldn't beat Sombra. Afterwards she looked for a spell that could make her stronger, and the one she found 'could' make her magic a lot more powerful, but at a price. No-pony that has ever cast that spell has ever survived afterwards."

"What! Why In All of Equestria Would She Use a Spell Like That?!" Rainbowdash screamed.

"Because…its Twilight Sparkle…" Fluttershy said, finally out of her coma, causing the rest to look her way. "Twilight wants to protect us. To her, if she can do that, she doesn't care if she loses her own life in the process, as long as we're safe."

Twilight walks up to Minucorn and gets ready, "(I'm sorry girls, but there's just no other way.") her horn begins to shine more and more intensely, until her whole body begins to shine as well and she is sent floating into the air. Minucorn senses the massive energy sores and looks her way, seeing her body glowing and her eyes shining with a pure white light. Minucorn smiles a cocky smile as his own eyes glow again.

"That's the spell," Spike said worried, "someone has to do something!"

"We can't move, how do we stop her?" Rainbow asks

"We had better think of something fast." Applejack answers

"I can't do anything; I'm the only one keeping Fluttershy alive right now." Rarity states

"Twilight…" Fluttershy says, still in a lot of pain.

* * *

Back in the Town hall, "Man what is taking them all so long," Pinkie says, while looking out the back door, "don't those girls know that not even a Pinkie party can start until the guest of honor arrives." She starts looking down the street, hoping to see her friends somewhere, when her eye catches the sight of intense 'light show' in the distance. "Wow, what a crazy light show," she began to run towards the lights to so what was making them.

* * *

"Twilight, stop this. Cancel the spell!" Rainbow shouted as loud as she could. The rest started shouting similar notions, but Twilight didn't even bother looking there way. She raised her arm to the sky, "I'm going to finish this, now," Twilight said as the magic energy in her horn started to shine with an intensity it has never had before. Minucorn gave another cocky smile and pointed one of his marked palms toward her as he charged another red-magic orb.

"This isn't good, She aint' listenin' to a word we say." Applejack said

"There has to be something we can…," before Rainbowdash could finish the sentence she was interrupted by their pink friend.

"Oh girls there you are," Pinkie said, "it's about time I found you. Do you know how long you kept the party waiting?"

"Pinkie?" said Applejack, "Where did you… never mind listen Pinkie, we need you to…"

"Hey girls, why are you all just sitting on the ground? Except you Rainbow, you're just flying in the air."

"Pinkie, listen, it's about Twilight, she's…"

"Oh yeah, isn't that her in front o that shiny guy? Oh that reminds me, there's something that I wanted to ask him. Just wait here girls, I'll be right back," She runs over to the battle sight, despite her friend's desperately shouting and trying to stop her from going over.

* * *

"Hello, excuse me, Mr. glow-y guy, can I please have your attention please," her call got the attention of Minucorn and Twilight.

"Pinkie!" Twilight shouts in surprise.

"Hello there, I just wanted to ask you something," Minucorn got a little closer to the pink-girl, "that's a pretty cool light show you're doing right now. You see me and my friends are kind of throwing a little party for our good friend Fluttershy, well actually it's more like a major-awesome-appreciation-Pinkie-party, and when I saw that light show of yours, I started to think, 'do you know what would make this party even more majorly-awesome… a fire works show,' and since you seem to be pretty good at that I was thinking that you would be the perfect person to do it. So what do you say; you're more than welcome to come and enjoy the rest of the party as well of course, and you know what they say, "there aint' no party like a Pinkie Pie Party."

"Pinkie, this is not some random circus performer," Twilight yells. "You are talking to an evil wizard who is trying to…"

"Sure," Minucorn answers. All of the girls were in shock that he actually spoke and agreed to her proposal.

"Really! You'll really come to the party and do that awesome show for every-pony." Pinkie said in excitement.

"Of course, who could say no to a party, especially a Pinkie Party? It sounds like great fun."

"Yeah it does"

"In fact, why don't I give you an example of my 'display,'" Minucorn holds his hand to Pinkies face and starts charging again.

"Ooooo, shiny," Pinkie looks on in wonder.

"Pinkie, Move!" Twilight shouts, causing her to loose her focus on her spells and freeing her friends.

"Hey," Applejack says, "I can move again"

"Well then let's go," Rainbow says as she activates her Buccaneer Blitz again and flies toward Twilight while Applejack runs to Pinkie Pie.

"Damn it! You're not going to hurt any more of my friends!" Twilight tries to blast Minucorn out of the air, but is hit from the side by a speeding Rainbowdash, while Minucorn fires his blast at Pinkie, only for her to be pushed out of the way at the last second.

Rainbow and Twilight land to the side, with Rainbow pinning Twilight down to the ground. "Rainbow, what are you doing?!" Twilight yells, "Just let me handle this, none of you can defeat him, and I'm the only one who has a chance. It has to be me who takes him down." Rainbowdash pulled back one of her arms, balled her fist and punched Twilight square in the cheek. The sensation caused Twilight to drop her spell while Rainbow dropped her field. "You idiot," Rainbow said, "You… DAMN IDIOT! Just what the hey' where you trying to prove with that little stunt!? What in Equestria makes you think that we would want to beat this thing so badly that we would actually risk losing you in the process," Rainbow started to tear up. "The whole reason that we're fighting him in the first place is because he's trying to hurt our town… all of our friends, so do you think we can really call it a win if we lose one of our best friends in the process." Twilight looks over to her friends and notices that Spike, Rarity and the now awake Fluttershy all had tears in there eyes; Applejack had told Pinkie what had happened and she started to look Twilights way with tears in her eyes as well, while Applejack just gave her a stare of disappointment. Twilight was starting to cry now too. "So maybe we messed up on some party, maybe we got caught up in something's that made us ditch you when you needed us, but don't think that means that you can't trust us to help when it really counts, so don't you ever try taking things into your own hooves like that again, and I swear to Celestia, if you ever really do jump the gun like that, I will follow you to death and kick you ass all the way back to Equestria if I have to," she gave a slight smile at the statement.

Twilight didn't know what to say, "She's correct you know," Twilight heard a familiar voice coming from behind her and looked to see who it was. She saw a tall woman with long, light, muti-colored hair, wearing a white dress and gold crown, with the mark of a large sun on her shoulder. Next to her was a shorter woman with dark-blue hair; wearing a black-frilled dress and black tiara; the mark of a moon surrounded by night on her shoulder. They both had both a long horn on there left arms and wings on there ankles and where flying just behind Twilight.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, how did you…" Twilight said in shock and ahhh

"We suspected that something was wrong, so we finished our business in Saddle-Arabia and rushed back here," Luna stated

"My young student, I understand that your heart was in the right place, but remember, this opponent survives by consuming the negative emotion of those around him. So even if your attack was to work, what do you think your friends would start to feel?" Twilight starts to think just how miserable she would feel if she saw her friends die and figured that they would feel the same way.

"Even if you did defeat him, he would just feed on that newly placed misery and come back," Added Luna.

Twilight couldn't believe herself; just how pointless her attack… her death would have really been, "Princesses… I just…," she started to cry uncontrollably and feel into Celestia's embrace. Celestia held her student while looking over to there opponent, seeming to be extra furious to see Celestia specifically. "Come Twilight, I believe it's time that we ended this." she stated.

"We couldn't have said it better sister," Luna said as she grabbed Twilight's waist and followed her sister back into the sky. "Twilight Sparkle, do you remember the spell that we told your shy friend to give you."

"**Light shell**, but that spell is one of the most basic imprisonment spells. How is that going to help us?"

"Normally yes," Celestia said, "but when it's cast by the hands of a master spell-caster, or three, it becomes infinitely more." Celestia holds out her horn, Luna does the same. They both look at Twilight and she adds her horn to the group. "Ready," Luna asks; Twilight nods. They all power up there horns and point them towards Minucorn. He knew what came next so he tried desperately to attack, but was too late. Celestia whispered under her breath "I'm sorry" as they all fired the light shell, canceling Minucorn's attack, hitting him square on, and sending him back to the hole that he came from; sealed away once again.

* * *

_To Be Concluded _


	4. a dream party

_The fight has come to an end, and thing are ready to take the turn for the better_

* * *

Chapter 4

The three sorceresses landed back on the ground, satisfied with there accomplishment. Once she hit the ground, Twilight lost her balance and almost fell over, "are you okay Twilight," Celestia asked. She stood back on her feet, "Yes, I'm just a little exhausted," said Twilight, "after what you pulled, your lucky that's all you are," Luna added. Twilight hung her head in shame.

As they spoke, the skies above them started to go from the dark red colors to there normally bright and shining blue. "It looks like things are starting to return to normal," Celestia responded. "Yeah, nor… oh no, Fluttershy!" Twilight used all the strength that she had left to rush over to her hurt friend's side. All of the others had already collected around her. Rarity stopped healing her; her body now stable. "Fluttershy…" Twilight dropped to her knees next to her as Fluttershy opened her eyes again. "…Fluttershy, are you alright," Twilight asked

"Yes," she answered, "I'm just a little tired"

"…I'm so sorry."

"It's okay"

"No it's not. I can't believe that I didn't trust you guys so much that I actually used that stupid spell."

"It was just Minucorn," Celestia said, "remember that he increases the negative emotion in a pony's heart."

"But he couldn't have if I didn't have those thoughts in my heart in the first place. How could I actually think that my friends couldn't help me?"

"Its okay twilight" said Fluttershy

"Quite right, you only did it so that you could protect us." Rarity added

"Yeah, yeah, just like you always do." Pinkie said

"Plus, this isn't exactly the first time that you've gone a little overboard, and I doubt it'll be the last." Rainbowdash claimed.  
"Yeah… she's got a point there Twi'" said Applejack

"No kidding," Spike said

"Yes, acting recklessly and making rash decisions does seem to be a common thing with Twilight Sparkle." Luna added as well. Twilight was starting to think that they were being a little too agreeable.

"…but that's the very thing that makes you such a wonderful student and friend Twilight. The way that you help your friends, regardless the threat to yourself," Celestia assured her.

Twilight saw a big smile on Celestia's face, as well as on the faces of all her friends, making her feel much better.

"Thanks guys," Twilight said, "but Fluttershy, we should probably get you to a hospital now." She gave a nod to agree with the idea, "Wait a minute," Pinkie yelled, "if it's healing that you need, I know the best place to go. Follow me," she ran while the group looked on and soon decided 'why not,' and followed her.

* * *

"Happy Birthday!" screamed the crowed of people, as the group finally walked into the Ponyville Town Hall, finally fully decorated, and filled with plenty of food. Rarities large statue of Fluttershy was decorating the center of the hall while being surrounded by a group of presents. "Wow, Pinkie this is amazing. How could you have done this so fast?" Twilight asked. "Duh," Pinkie pulled a small cannon out of… somewhere, "…party cannon." "…And Rarity, that statue, it's beautiful," Twilight's eyes were fixed on the center piece, "It did take me a bit longer than I would have liked, but I think it turned out quite nice still," Rarity answered. "The same goes for the food, I couldn't make as much as I wanted," Applejack said. Twilight looked at the full party room again and began to feel foolish for thinking that her friends really didn't care for her party ideas at all, but she knew better now.

The girls and Spike found a table where they could all sit together, including the princesses. "Fluttershy, are you sure you're okay with this, being here instead of getting some rest." Twilight said worried.  
"Of course, after all the work you girls must have done, I can't think of anyplace that I would rather be."

Twilight looked at all of her friends, sitting and smiling together, "Yeah, same here," she said.

"Well to make this birthday complete," Rainbow says, grabbing a small box from behind her back, "happy birthday Fluttershy," she hands over the box

"Oh my," Fluttershy responded, "thank you"

"Our gift, but how did you…"

"When you guy's where walking over here, I flew by the store and picked it up," said Rainbow. "I told you not to sweat."

Twilight laughed at the statement, "So Fluttershy, aren't you going to open it," Fluttershy nods her head in agreement and begins to open the small box. As she opens it, a bright light begins to shine out of it, but strangely, Twilight was the only one who seemed to be affected by it. It grew so bright that she was forced to cover her eyes and head until, finally, every thing went black.

* * *

Within a large tree like house, a small purple unicorn had been resting on top of an open book lying on her work desk. From behind her, a small purple and green dragon came up and gave her a waking nudge, "Twilight,' he said, "Twilight wake up, it's morning." Twilight awoke from on top of the book that she mistook for a pillow. "What…," she said, "its morning I said, today is Fluttershy's birthday, remember. Did you finally pick out a cake for the party?" Twilight looked at the book and saw what cake it was on, the 'blue-raspberry apple crumb cake, "Yeah… this one looks good." "Well then we had better get started on making it," Spike said as he headed to the kitchen. "Right, let's get baking."

After finishing the baking, Spike and Twilight started to head to the Ponyville Town Hall. Twilight levitated the cake in front of her while Spike road on her back. "Well, looks like we got our part done," Said Spike "Do you think the girls remembered to get there's done?" Twilight thought back to the weird dream that she had and knew that the answer was obvious, "Yeah Spike, I'm positive they have. When the girls make a promise you can be sure that they are going to keep it."

"Yeah, you're right; you sure seem strangely chipper today, what's up.

"Spike, let's just say, after last night, I'm defiantly going to be putting a lot more trust in my friends from now on. After all, I don't think a pony could ever ask for better ones." Spike couldn't help but be curious at her response, "wow, what exactly happened last night."

"Well you see…"

Twilight told Spike all about her weird dream as they kept walking to the party. While she spoke, the ground under them began to shake a bit. "Did you feel that?" Said Twilight, "Feel what?" Spike replied. Far under the surface of the town, where no-pony could notice, began to glow a small… red… light.

* * *

_The End,_ _Thank you for reading_

** (This story is done, but a spin-off tail for this should be come out soon, a few actually. Until then…)**


End file.
